Anticancer activity of subfractions from <i>Eriocaulon cinereum</i> R.Br extract in cervical cancer cells

Abstract

The previous studies on Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br showed that one of the subfractions from its dichloromethane extract has better activity than its crude extract in a breast cancer cell line. Meanwhile, the activity of the same subfractions has never been studied in cervical cell lines. The hypothesis was that the subfraction activity was also better than its crude extract in cervical cancer lines. This study compared the activity of extracts, fractions, and subfractions of E. cinereum R.Br extracts on HeLa cervical cell lines. The sample extraction was carried out using ethyl acetate solvent and continued via fractionation using semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The samples were then tested for cytotoxicity on HeLa cervical cancer cells and Vero cells as normal control cells using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. Finally, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was used to identify the active compound from the active subfractions. The data obtained from the cytotoxic activity evaluation were analyzed via linear regression using Excel for MS Windows®. The results showed that the best cytotoxicity against HeLa cells was with the ASA012 subfractions with an IC₅₀ value of 83.248 μg/mL and a selectivity index (SI) of 2.157. These compounds were obtained from a peak with a retention time of 19.605 min and identified as terpenoids. These subfractions have moderate cytotoxicity activity and have better activity than their crude extract. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out further isolation to separate them to obtain pure compounds with better cytotoxic activity.